Folk Tale

Folk Tale Alpha 30 rolls ten patches from the experimental build into the main stable version on Steam. Please see the incremental patch links at the bottom of this post for more info.

Players can now optionally pause gameplay by pressing spacebar to toggle tactical mode. The camera can still be moved, and hero commands issued including targeting abilities. Less nimble players now have time to think.

Build defensive wooden walls (palisade) in an overhaul of the walls system. Control passage with the gatehouse, and add additional fortification with watchtowers. Both gatehouses and watchtowers can be garrisoned with Hunters and Arbalists by selecting units and then clicking with the secondary mouse button. The Barracks has been redesigned to occupy less space.

Previously, workers would spend an increasing amount of time walking to various service points to consume food / clothes / mead causing productivity to drop. So we’ve changed how economy works to improve gameplay. Needs are now met without the need to travel. Not only does this mean workers now do more of what you want them to do - work - military units now also consume food, and hunters can be garrisoned as early military ranged units. We’ve received very positive feedback so far and the change helps a great deal with balancing.

We’re adding lore books, journals and crafting recipes to encourage dungeon delving. We’re in the early stages as part of an overhaul of crafting, but the new lore book UI adds to immersion and world flavour, as well as better connecting the village and adventuring aspects of gameplay.

Building fires can now break out accidentally or through arson. The behavior of wells has been automated, and placement is now important as fires can spread. Unhappy villagers now start to rebel after a while (depending on difficulty setting), resorting to theft and arson.

Did you know that regular updates are made to the experimental build? The public version on Steam is the stable version, and is only updated every few months to allow youtubers and more casual players more time to finish their video series and save games. But if you'd like more patches, please visit the link above. Accessing experimental builds takes 5 seconds, and is part of the Steam ecosystem.

Fix: Questing: Rotwold Antidote: Player could lock themselves out of the TreasuryFix: Reinstated PCF3x3 for softer shadow edgesFix: Drastically reduced shader compilations leading to faster load times and less memory consumptionFix: Woodcutters were planting the wrong types of trees in the snow and swamp biomesFix: SSAO has been disabled due to a glitchFix: Building fire cooldown timer was starting when the fire started and not when it was extinguished

Level Designers

Core Tiles: Cliff Straight Full 03 - the steps texture is now set dynamically depending on the biomeCore Tiles: Waterfall tile pieces updated

Known Issues

Crime needs more visual indications of what has been stolenTooltip text can run verticallyLoot drops are now too rare, and most party loot seems to be for Ser Gregory

Developer Comments

Only save games and workshop items saved with 0.5.3.x versions are now valid. Level designers should open their maps, save, and then republish to Steam Workshop for them to appear in the load dialog.

Folk Tale

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53

Experimental (0.5.3.2)

27 mar, 2017

EXPERIMENTAL BUILD (0.5.3.2)

The primary changes in this patch include an engine upgrade that may deliver performance improvements, improvements to mechanics, and making monsters respawn in several maps to increase game longevity.

Please note that 6GB+ of system memory is recommended for the experimental build.

What's new?

Mechanics: Clicking ground near an enemy automatically issues attack move for a better feelMechanics: Improved building fire code to reduce instances of villagers running needlessly farMechanics: Removed military from contributing towards monster challenge levelMechanics: Camera pitch no longer changes as camera zooms in/outMechanics: Rabbits are now treated the same as deer and can be huntedMechanics: Added combat stance toggle to character portrait wheel > defensive stance will only enter combat if they are attacked (new default for villagers) > aggressive stance will enter combat when any monster is nearby (default for military & heroes) > shortcut key is G > players might like to set Willow to defensive stance to stop her initiating combatImprovement: Clicking the supply wagon will now provide an option for opening the village inventoryPerformance: We’ve updated the engine and gained a performance boost to particles

Map Changes

Sandbox: Added Haunted Graveyard (large adventure map accessible via portal in large undead area)Sandbox: Added Defiled Cathedral map (boss battle small dungeon, accessible via Haunted Graveyard)Sandbox: Haven: All dead mobs now re-spawn after 10 minutesSandbox: Haven: Added more deer and new rabbit warren respawnersCampaign: Shirebrook: Removed a lot of immovable rocks to make room for further constructionCampaign: Shirebrook: Added rabbit spawnersCampaign: Shirebrook: Most dead mobs now re-spawn after 10 minutesTutorial: After defeating Nugzerg, player can now exit to main menu or continue playing

Bug Fixes

Fix: Starting a map and then exiting to the main menu could leave progress stuck at 40%Fix: Prevented a work scheduler from assigning construction point work when there were building firesFix: Font unreadable in workbench search boxesFix: Quixl’s Eviscerate ability was doing normal weapon damage instead of X% of weapon damage (e.g. 200%)

Crime needs more visual indications of what has been stolen.Tooltip text can run verticallyMemory footprint gets too big - we’re working on it this weekLoot drops are now too rare, and most party loot seems to be for Ser GregorySome of the floor texture scales may look wrong

Developer Comments

Only save games and workshop items saved with 0.5.3.x versions are now valid. Level designers should open their maps, save, and then republish to Steam Workshop for them to appear in the load dialog.

In this patch, monsters now respawn in the campaign Shirebrook map, and the sandbox Haven map. We'll be adding respawn to the other maps in subsequent patches.

Enjoying the game? Write a review.

Folk Tale

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62

Experimental (0.5.3.1)

10 mar, 2017

EXPERIMENTAL BUILD (0.5.3.1)

The primary changes in this patch include economy enchants on Blacksmith recipes (e.g. +20% efficiency), a change of font for improved clarity (especially Russian), and a smaller fishing hut.

Player: Changed font for improved clarity and better Russian language displayPlayer: All trainable unit options now show in the building context menu, but padlocked if the required search has not yet been completedPlayer: Worker magic loot can now provide production bonuses (Pickaxe Of Laboring +20% efficiency)Player: Windmills now have a delayed converter for milling Wheat into Flour, in-line with other buildingsPlayer: Settings: Gameplay: Added toggle for building fires (on by default)Player: Buildings: Fishing Hut redesigned to occupy less spacePlayer: Building Dialog: Crafting: Ingredients icons now show full tooltips as they may contain hints

Bug Fixes

Fix: Farmers now carry wheat from fields instead of sacks of flourFix: Nearby wheat resources now show a wheat icon instead of a sack of flourFix: Crafting tab scroll window contents in building dialog could overflowFix: Palisade Gatehouse gates could be opened/closed before construction had completedFix: Visual glitch in trees as they are felled

Player: Building fires can now break out, either by accident or through arson (crime)Player: The rate at which building fires can spread to other buildings is linked to the difficulty settingPlayer: Unhappiness can lead to theft and arson (see event notifications in the bottom right)Player: Barracks remade to take up less roomPlayer: Changed behaviour on well so it is now automated. Water removed from potion crafting recipe ingredients listPlayer: The building dialog is now immediately refreshed following a building upgrade

Bug Fixes

Fix: Crash reporter fired when loading a game once a lore book had been destroyed (e.g. in Lilith’s Office)Fix: Cottage Tier 2 and 3 didn't have their rally points set which prevented their extra capacity from being used. Population appeared to be stuck at say 40/45 with happiness at max and no more peasants arrivingFix: Increased the LOD range on caves and sarcophagus so they don’t disappear when zooming outFix: Garrisoned units no longer jump over the edge of watchtowers when commanded to moveFix: Watchtowers now ignore navmesh intersects, making them easier to butt up to palisadeFix: Stopped garrisoned units that die from being teleported to the rally point on deathFix: Gatehouse door cut wasn’t active following placement (meant units could run over it and end up hitting the character collider and appear to be floating)Fix: Removed siege defenses from Workshop description as it is no longer relevantFix: Merged Blacksmith's backpack into the main skin and removed the separate object from the prefab, reducing the bone count by 10Fix: Construction points could instant-heal buildings due if tactical pause had been used at some pointFix: Building upgrade button is now disabled if not enough resources or the building is on fire

Only save games and workshop items saved with 0.5.3.x versions are now valid. Level designers should open their maps, save, and then republish to Steam Workshop for them to appear in the load dialog.

Enjoying the game? Write a review.

Folk Tale

13

71

Experimental (0.5.2.2)

17 feb, 2017

EXPERIMENTAL BUILD (0.5.2.2)

The primary changes in this patch include villagers no longer needing to travel to fulfil their needs, the addition of the watchtower military building, and numerous improvements to the garrison system.

Player: Villagers now consume food / clothing / mead on the spot without having to walk to a buildingPlayer: Military units now consume food / clothing / mead (more mouths to feed than before)Player: Added watchtower (garrison for Arbalists)Player: Gatehouses can now be placed right up against palisade (making replacing destroyed gatehouses easier)Player: Destroying garrison buildings now moves units to the rally points to prevent them floating down slowlyPlayer: Hunters can now be garrisoned in gatehouses and watchtowersPlayer: Bears, boars, spiders and wolves can now attack palisadesPlayer: Bow ranges are now consistent with crossbow ranges

Bug Fixes

Fix: Sending one already garrisoned unit to a second gatehouse didn’t free up the original garrison slotFix: Palisades didn’t cut into the navmesh on sloped terrains such as beachesFix: Palisades were too high when restoring saved gamesFix: Cotton fields weren’t showing the cotton plants (visual glitch)Fix: Gatehouse door state wasn’t updating the navmesh correctly when loading saved games

Known Issues

With consumption now happening without travel, worker productivity has increased. This will lead to faster stockpiling of resources. In the next patch we’ll probably reduce this.Towers need to ignore obstructions and behave like the gatehouse does.Selecting units garrisoned in the watchtower and attacking an enemy can result in some units falling out of the tower.The tower and gatehouse character colliders need disabling during construction otherwise units that walk over them can end up rising into the air.

Developer Comments

Only save games and workshop items saved with 0.5.2.x versions are valid. Level designers should open their maps, save, and then republish to Steam Workshop for them to appear in the load dialog.

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Folk Tale

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70

Experimental (0.5.2.1)

15 feb, 2017

EXPERIMENTAL BUILD (0.5.2.1)

This is a micro patch containing fixes for bugs introduced in yesterday’s 0.5.2.0 release, as well as adding in palisade gates.

ONLY SAVE GAMES CREATED WITH VERSION 0.5.2.x WILL SHOW IN THE LOAD SAVED GAME DIALOG. SEE DEVELOPER NOTES BELOW FOR MORE INFO.

Player: Added palisade gatehousePlayer: Added support for garrison-type buildings; used by the palisade gatehouse

Bug Fixes

Fix: Pink objects on some buildingsFix: Engineer turrets are placeable again

Known Issues

Please see the patch notes for 0.5.2.0With gatehouses, connecting one to existing palisade doesn’t really workWith gatehouses, sending one already garrisoned unit to a second gatehouse doesn’t free up the garrison slot. To resolve this, use the exit all context button after selecting the gatehouse.

Developer Comments

Only save games and workshop items saved with 0.5.2.x versions are valid. Level designers should open their maps, save, and then republish to Steam Workshop for them to appear in the load dialog.

The palisade gates use a newly implemented garrison system so that arbalists (crossbowmen) can stand guard on top. This system will be used in watch towers in a future patch. We’ll be experimenting further with the palisade gatehouse to address the listed known issues.

Folk Tale

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51

Experimental (0.5.2.0)

14 feb, 2017

EXPERIMENTAL BUILD (0.5.2.0)

The primary changes in this patch include the addition of lore books for things like crafting recipes and journal entries, constructible palisades, part of an ongoing overhaul of crafting and loot, and a new dungeon (kobold mines) linked into the sandbox Haven map.

ONLY SAVE GAMES AND WORKSHOP MAPS SAVED WITH THE CURRENT VERSION NOW SHOW IN THE LOAD SAVED GAME DIALOG. SEE DEVELOPER NOTES BELOW FOR MORE INFO.

Fix: Well handle was showing above the ground when first placing the buildingFix: Potential fix for jittery debrisFix: Locked crafting recipes that appeared in red never turned white when related research was completedFix: Fixed alignment issue with gold in marketplace dialogFix: Editor: Inspector: Character spawn point inspector minimum height wasn’t being set correctly making it hard to access at the bottom of the scroll listFix: Black fade between cutscenes had a glitch in the bottom right corner

All spider dens in sandbox and campaign village maps have been level capped at 5. No more OP spiders!Campaign: Shirebrook: Rabbits are now capped at level 1

Important/Breaking Changes

If level designers have used any of the individual Blacksmith research items, you should update maps to use Armorsmithing, Weaponsmithing, Shield Making and Prospecting only. In time we will be removing the deprecated research options such as Axes, Crossbows etc.

Willow’s mass heal visual effect isn’t clearing up if it is cast right before using a portal to another map. If this happens, please save your game, exit to the main menu, and load.

Load times will have increased due to some additional code we’ve added to experimental to help track down a serialization bug

Kenny can get stuck again during his attack if you complete his dialogue while he’s stunned

Developer Comments

0.5.2.0 invalidates older save games. Level designers should open their maps, save and then republish to steam with this version for them to show up in the load custom game dialog. Subsequent patch versions of 0.5.2.x will not require this step. Only when the version increases to 0.5.3.0 will it be required again.

The addition of conversion recipes to the Blacksmith and Woodcutter’s Hut are exploratory at this stage and will feed into the crafting recipe overhaul.

For level designers, when using LootCreateRecipe, the base recipe must use items named ‘Base Recipe X’ where X is the item type such as sword, axe, cloth armor, plate. If you wish the recipe to be unlocked once a piece of research is completed, add ‘Research Weaponsmithing’ or similar to the cost field. For examples, please see the lore books in Lilith’s office in the Desecrated Cathedral.

0.5.2.1 is also now available and adds the palisade gatehouse:http://steamcommunity.com/games/224440/announcements/detail/2548545147296825340.5.2.2 is also now available and adds the watchtower:http://steamcommunity.com/games/224440/announcements/detail/254854514736627592

Folk Tale

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59

Experimental (0.5.1.1)

23 jan, 2017

EXPERIMENTAL BUILD (0.5.1.1)

The changes in this micro patch are primarily bug fixes and balancing.

Player: Selected non-primary heroes (i.e. those heroes whose portraits are not highlighted with the green box in the top left of the screen) now use AI for their abilitiesPlayer: Updated Russian language files

Bug Fixes

Fix: Application was taking too long to exit to desktopFix: Camera could freeze after exiting a cutscene or panning to heroes/units during long play sessionsFix: Character voice volumes weren’t responding to the Secondary Voices sound setting

Map Changes

None

Balancing

Reduced duration of Lilith’s Torment ability from 30s to 10sDoubled the damage of Borgle’s Power Shot ability from 35 to 70Increased damage of Borgle’s Rain Of Arrows ability from 25 to 40Increased Borgle’s base attack rating from 10 to 14 to increase his DPSReduced damage of Lilith’s tomes from 25 to 20

Important/Breaking Changes

None

Known Issues

Load times will have increased due to some additional code we’ve added to experimental to help track down a serialization bug

Kenny can get stuck again during his attack if you complete his dialogue while he’s stunned

Folk Tale

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55

Experimental (0.5.1.0)

20 jan, 2017

EXPERIMENTAL BUILD (0.5.1.0)

The primary changes in this patch are focused on bug fixes, campaign tweaks, balancing, and some new things for level designers (part of our work on Act III).

ONLY SAVE GAMES CREATED WITH THE CURRENT VERSION NOW SHOW IN THE LOAD SAVED GAME DIALOG. SEE DEVELOPER NOTES BELOW FOR MORE INFO.

Player: Load Saved Game: Only save games from the current version now show up (see dev notes section below)Player: Updated stone block icons so it’s less like the iron ingots iconsSettings: Added a checkbox under gameplay settings to stop spider den raids against player villagesSettings: Added a graphics setting to enable depth of field (although it’s not widely used at the moment)Editor: Workbench: Added CutsceneDepthOfField node to control camera depth of field*Editor: Workbench: Added Transform node for when both position and rotation are neededEditor: Workbench: Added WorkPointTriggerCustom node for making innate objects interactable**Editor: Workbench: Replaced helper text at bottom of inspector with a ? button that links to a web reference guide

Bug Fixes

Fix: The mysterious case of disappearing items on heroes is hopefully now fixedFix: Blizzard weather effect is now working as intendedFix: Nara’s charm ability was causing charmed heroes to level up a lotFix: Prevented most damage being applied during cutscenes (CharacterDamage and Damage nodes ignore this)Fix: Prevented loot sparkles from being cleaned up after 10 minutes if the loot contains a quest itemFix: Some save games in experimental 0.5.0.0 (any map that created custom loot items) wouldn’t load properlyFix: Willow’s thorns visualization no longer rotates with the affected targetFix: Prevented tactical pause from being toggled when conversation dialog is visibleFix: Grublin invasion mobs were being created as Undead factionFix: Selecting a character, opening village inventory or a character sheet now cancels any building placementFix: Most trinkets were set to not stackFix: Sandbox: Stinking Swamp: Too many wolves could get spawned

Map Changes

Campaign: Desecrated Cathedral: Player must now destroy the generator before Lilith appears to seek her revenge for killing BromSandbox: Cold Peak: Minor changes to reduce z-flicker, added a few of the new props

Balancing

Balancing: Reduced the XP penalty on Normal, Hard and Harder difficulty levelsBalancing: Enemy units now only recover health at half the rate of player heroes and unitsBalancing: Withering Dead: Nerfed Bonefinger, Mordrich and Lilith as they were too challenging on normal difficultyBalancing: Gladefolk: Nerfed Nara, Willow and Mossclaw as they were too challenging on normal difficultyBalancing: Boss agro detection range has been significantly reduced to prevent them hunting down the player

We’ve done some content optimization in this patch, so if you cannot find certain kit pieces, they have probably been moved to the Core Tiles kit.

Please note the new Workbench Reference Guide is work in progress; we’re aware of the occasional long class name issue.

Important/Breaking Changes

If you are a level designer with maps/worlds on Steam Workshop, you will need to republish your maps to Workshop with this version so that they show up again in the game.

Known Issues

Load times will have increased due to code we’ve added to the experimental build to help us track down a serialization bug

Kenny can get stuck again during his attack if you complete his dialogue while he’s stunned

Developer Comments

In this patch only save games created with the current version will now show in the load saved game menu option. We have taken this step to prevent bug reports being submitted where an error is caused by incompatible save game versions. If you prefer a period of no disruption, please exit the experimental build and revert back to the main Steam version, or turn off automatic updates in your Steam Library.

* Note that by default depth of field is never enabled. The player must actively enable it under graphics settings, so in most cases it won’t ever show.

** WorkPointTriggerCustom node does not work on characters, only innate objects such as props. This is intended to make things like books/weapons etc. interactable.